Are you a fan of a certain TV game show and would like to help make a positive impact on the shows viewing figures and general popularity as well as make other people become aware of the show so they too can become fans of any TV game show? This article explains how you can create other articles on wikiHow about this subject. Follow along from step one below to find out how can be done. Remember, you can't force anyone to like anything so just telling them how be a fan of something won't necessarily make them like it unless there's something they just inherently like about it.

Steps

1

Do a search on wikiHow in order to ensure that an article on the topic hasn't been been started already. Type "become a fan" then a comma and then the exact game show name in the search box that is shown at the top of every wikiHow page and click the "Search" box to see. Although most game shows don't tend to be written about, there are a few out there. Remember too that whatever steps you are going to write should be completely specific to your selected TV game show and in no way applicable to becoming a fan of any other TV game show, or, for that matter any other TV show or anything else. Your article must be completely different to any other articles that cover being a fan of something.

2

Begin a new article if the search turns out blank or doesn't pop up with something even remotely similar to becoming a fan of that show. Use the Special:CreatePage to begin your topic off with the title. Use titles such as "Become a Fan of the TV Game Show Called (Insert Name Here)" (without adding the parenthesis).

3

Begin the article, after double-checking on the search results page and clicking on the "next" button.

4

Start the article with an intro. Excite the reader into wanting to become a fan of the show. Keep the intro fairly short - it is recommended to have the introduction three to four sentences long. Make your reader want to continue reading further into the Steps section. Do your very best with spelling, grammar, flow and basic writing rules and guidelines such as not starting a sentence with but or however. If you aren't very good at writing, have a learning difficulty or any other issues with writing in a comprehensible, fluid style, just try your best. There are lots of great contributors and Boosters on wikiHow who can make improvements to your article and help it on its way to being virtually perfect.

5

Move onto the Steps section.

Pique the reader's interest, if there's something about the introduction to the game after the introductory credits played that set this game show apart from others.

Ensure the reader knows how the game is or was (certain games can still be watched online and the person can still be a fan of the show even if it's in syndication online) played. Give them enough of an understanding about how the game is played to pique their interest. If you wish, give them as much information about how the game is played as is possible although someone who isn't really into detailed and complex explanations of things might get really bored reading all that and others may prefer to just watch a couple of episodes and see if they can figure it out for themselves. Unless there are tiny differences in the way the game is played from "episode 1" to "episode 2", give them as much information as you can generalize and gather all of the information together. Begin the step with an action verb that ensures they understand that they really should know how it's played. It's not fair making them see the show to believe what happens at this point.

Let the reader understand what happened as a result of a tie, if a tie occurred. Did a buzzer sound or was another question asked? Give specifics as to exactly what happened as a result of this.

If you don't remember the name of an item on the set that was commonly used or the item had no official name, provide lots of details to describe the item so as to not have this specific item not get confused with other similar items on set.

Try to discuss all rounds in the first step as separate bullet points/sub-steps of the first step.

Include details from the concluding set following the last portion of the end game till the end credits, if there was something that set this game show apart from the others. If there was something in the credits that will set this portion apart from the other shows, include this too.

Discuss at least some of the major set pieces that made this show differentiate from all others in the game show realm. Try to explain these pieces in as much detail as you can possibly remember. If you need help and if the show is on YouTube (or you have a copy of the show) watch it and record as much as you can. (If the contestants sat at desks, describe the desks that they used from one end to the other, making sure to include as much detail as possible.)

If there was a scoreboard outside of each contest desk (or other display piece), describe this piece) including how the numbers were portrayed (digital/manual) along with the colors.

If the desk contained props that were a major part of the game, explain where they were located on the desk, along with what color they were (or what they looked like) and where they were inserted when they were picked. IF players used props to answer that were located on the desk (as you'll see in an upcoming portion of this step), include these details in this step.

Discuss how the questions were answered, if contestants didn't just press a button to answer. Again, draw out as much information as possible. Try to draw a picture in your mind of what the answer buttons looked like when typing out these steps. If you can compare the button to something else from the outside normal world, go ahead, but explain what subtle differences these had. Watch a copy of the show to get the nitty-gritty details to include to see just how this happened.

Have the reader consider the contestant shirts if the shirts weren't the person's everyday shirts from the person's own apparel. Shirts that most contestants wore from Nickelodeon's 1980s and 1990s game shows most often fit the bill for different shirts, along with some other shows such as some shows from the mid 1990s on (what would later become) ABC Family along with a few shows on USA and the Turner Networks (specifically Supermarket Sweep and a wealth of other game shows).

If the contestant wore just regular street-clothes, don't mention it in the Steps. However, you can mention this detail in the Tips section of the article, instead.

Explain some of the rare occurrences of that specific TV game show. If there was some classic memorable occurrences that every fan must know, mention it as a separate sub-step of the second step. If you can provide dates that these memorable achievements happened in their shows running, mention these dates (but don't mention when the show was re-ran as a repeat airing - use the original airing date if possible). Utilize references to cite your sources of where these dates and memorable achievements can be shown. Again, this will be unbelievably boring to some readers who believe that being a fan of something just means enjoying watching it and perhaps playing along at home. Some popular game shows haven't been running long enough for there to be any memorable moments.

Give the reader some information what would happen if the player struck out or something weird happened and would lose something (if present in a game). As all players in almost all games recognize, it's possible that not everyone is a winner and that mistakes can happen - either in the part of the winner or that of the potential loser - even if it is answering a question wrong or whatever, explain in as much detail as possible how these were portrayed (unless the host just said that they were wrong - in which case just mention that the host said the answer was wrong and move on).

Make the reader understand the dates to the first episodes airing to the last episodes airing to give them a time frame for them to recognize how young or old these shows are. Unless the show is still playing at the current time. Many 'classic' TV game shows are no longer screened in their original syndication). Run the (at the very least the years) dates past the reader in the step along with the channel that the show would air on. If the show switched mid-series, convey how many seasons the show shot on one station and explain that it moved to the second station in the following year until it stopped in whatever last year it ended in.

Explain to the reader what the original objective of the game was. Make sure they can "recognize" this as a fact.

Give them the host's name. Even if the host has died, most TV game shows and articles about TV game shows should really have their host's name mentioned. Include some details on where else the host had hosted from (if possible) but keep the focus on the game show; tie over this binding by trying to compare (as opposed to contrast) the two shows.

Provide additional information only as sub-steps of each of these steps of any spin-offs of the TV game show that utilized the original playing style (unless nothing pre- or proceeded it) in which case this step can be completely dropped.

Give the reader other information such as the announcers and some details about them along with some other memorable times when special holiday episodes (Christmas, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Easter, Halloween, etc.) were portrayed. If you could provide dates of when these aired, that's even better.

6

Write down some Tips for the Tips section of the article. This is a place to provide other rather important details.

Communicate with the reader of your article (unless you don't know it and can't obtain it) the original broadcasting station of the TV game show you are trying to make a person become the fan of. If the game show is currently running in repeat syndication somewhere (besides online), mention it. There are two US general TV stations (though differences could exist depending on your country of origin) that air repeat-syndicated TV game shows (of that being the Game Show Network or sometimes nicknamed "GSN" and (if the item was on Nickelodeon during Nickelodeon's game show's heydays, it should be on "Nick Gas" or sometimes now on "Teen Nick".) mention these here. Thankfully there are not TV stations devoted to repeating old game shows in many countries of the world.

Let the reader understand in the Tips that some of these episodes to most shows are shown on online sources (such as YouTube or the like). The Tips section tends to be the best place to put the obvious (non-becoming a fan of the program) information. Give your reader some information of where other YouTube users are showing their episodes.

If you are one of those who is uploading complete copies of episodes to YouTube (which YouTube policy states you can't do it because of a "complete rights issue"), understand that it is deemed unacceptable to place your name and a link to your username page here. However, if the user has several videos or a playlist of videos he's began and has been uploading videos of these episodes to his account for several months to years) these are the best user profile pages to place. Utilize exlinks (external links) to the user's YouTube profile page, never the videos themselves.

Include in your tips sections how readers can, if possible, obtain associated merchandise of the game show in question. A true fan would own a tee-shirt, pen or quiz book based on their most favourite game show at least, if such a thing exists. Research your topic and advise your reader regarding books, board games, computer games etc that relate to the game show and are obtainable.

7

Find at least five articles to fill the "Related wikiHows" section with. Although it's fairly tough with the small amount of articles wikiHow has in reference to becoming a fan of a TV game show, sometimes a search for the game show name alone can pull up an article or two, or perhaps even the word "fan" alone. As with what was described in Add Related wikiHows, you have several options that you can choose from.

8

Categorize your article. Although these may be essentially a "fan" article or about a TV show, your best bet at this time is to place it in the "TV Viewing and Shows". This can be obtained by clicking the Edit button underneath the Categories section on the Guided Editor screen, typing that in the box and finding the category there, or typing Category:TV Viewing and Shows above the line labeled "== Steps == and below your introductory paragraph from the Advanced Editor.

9

Provide any sources you might have found that led you to understand your topic even further or that can lead the reader into understanding your topic more and seeing that the information you provided was a true case. Follow these policies to find out what is and what isn't acceptable here.

Cite your sources in the Sources and Citations section of the article. If the article has had some <ref> HTML tags written into the article, add a {{reflist}} template so it displays the citations, so the reader understands where the verified information can be found. Follow it up with any other sources you were using as research sources (but don't try to cite YouTube videos here unless they have information on the subject.

Utilize both Use Research Sources on wikiHow as well as the external links policy to find out what you need to do to ensure these don't violate wikiHow's policy. If you provided any reference links to phrases of text using the <ref>...</ref> linking styles but don't feel like having to add the section for additional links, open the Sources and Citations section up and following through (leaving that section blank as the Use Research Sources on wikiHow article explained above.)

Community Q&A

If this question (or a similar one) is answered twice in this section, please click here to let us know.

Tips

Logging into a personal account is best. Do this if you are a fan who knows a lot about the subject matter.

You don't have to have been a contestant or even a person in the audience of a game show during the game shows run to contribute your article here. Freewriting as much as you know about the game show can help your article's chances of being promoted in a fairly timely matter become possible.

Revisit your article later (to update the information), if you write about a game show that still airs. If the host changes, because they have died for example, you may feel, as a fan, that you need to out your article right. To some degree this will apply even to shows that no longer run if you mention anything that may alter over time.

Try and recognize the fact that it's hard to persuade people to become fans, if the game show only has episodes that have already aired and ended. A lot of people enjoy game shows, for example Deal or No Deal, Pointless, Family Fortunes etc because they don't know the outcome of each episode. Totally removing any element of surprise may in fact make someone less keen on it.

Expand your article to make it specific to the game show in question. Has their been a media scandal about the host? Did the host have a high profile career prior to their work on Blankety-Blank, Countdown or The Weakest Link etc? You can add a step suggesting the reader learn or research about these things. You may even go so far as to suggest the reader read the host's autobiography if they have one. Don't forget to mention celebrity editions of your game show if there have been any.

Warnings

Be careful to keep your sources up to date. Although there used to be a site called "Game Show Compendium" on the Internet that housed lots of great information, unfortunately, this site has become defunct and most of the information housed there is no longer to be found online in any form.

Although the links they showed still exist online, the site itself went away. The site the same author put up now is in no way similar to what the old site was (the new site only houses information on the video games adapted from some of these TV game shows). Keep an eye out for updated changes routinely.

Although helpful to the reader to see an episode or two, there are rarely ever any usable YouTube videos you can use that devote back to the reader of the use of videos for the videos section. Don't even devote much time to finding one, however, if the video talks about how the reader can become a fan of that particular show, these videos should be good - but be careful as some can be tricky to decipher for this type of article in this section.